Indiana D-Day veterans honored with plane ride

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – In honor of their service, two local veterans enjoyed a free ride in a plane that was built in the same year they hit the beach in Normandy.

Joseph Alexander and Marshall Horn have memories they’d rather not have of June 6, 1944.

Horn, who is now nearly 100 years old, remembers D-Day vividly.

“Very sad. A lot of dead people. A lot of blood. The shoreline was red with blood,” Horn said.

Alexander, who is 91, hit the beach as the skipper of an amphibious landing craft.

“There were literally hundreds of bodies along the beach that had drown. And, it was like a blanket. A blanket of bodies,” Alexander said.

The Commemorative Air Force gave both men free airplane rides over Indianapolis on Friday. They were in the back seat of a military trainer that was built the same year they assaulted Normandy.

The flight was short, but it impressed Alexander.

“It was awesome,” he said.

Alexander said he couldn’t imagine being up there fighting an enemy in that airplane.

The Commemorative Air Force wanted to make sure those of us who weren’t there know the stories and the sacrifices of Alexander and Horn and the thousands of other Americans who were part of the D-Day invasion.

“I spent 70 years trying to forget it…it would be a different world, if we hadn’t been there,” Horn said.

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